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"You
can't look at this documentary and not be moved to tears or
anger over such ignorance and bigotry."
Blade GLBT Newsmagazine
"A remarkable and essential work...
I can affirm that everyone needs to hear and see this film's
crucial, disturbing and enthralling story."
Scott Long, Director, LGBT RIGHTS
PROGRAM, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
"This moving and thoughtful documentary raises awareness
about the abuse, isolation and poor medical care faced by
transgender prisoners. We hope that the film's insight will
be a springboard for new policies that adequately protect
this vulnerable community."
Elizabeth Alexander, Executive
Director, ACLU NATIONAL PRISON PROJECT
"CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
is a remarkable and essential work. At a time when torture
has haltingly become part of the national conversation, and
when all Americans need to be thinking seriously about the
violence in our systems of punishment and detention, Cruel
and Unusual draws emotionally devastating attention to victims
of violence who are persecuted for their stubborn visibility
within the penal system - but remain invisible to an indifferent
world outside. From Human Rights Watch's perspective, I can
affirm that everyone needs to hear and see this film's crucial,
disturbing, and enthralling story."
Scott Long, Director, LGBT
RIGHTS PROGRAM/HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
"CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
takes us inside the harrowing world of transgender women in
U.S. prisons, showing us the violence, isolation, and bureaucratic
indifference to which they are routinely subjected. Letting
these women speak for themselves, the film makes a compelling
and lucid argument for sexual and gender self-determination
as a basic human right. Along the way the film brings into
focus unexpected connections between transgender rights, prisoners'
rights, and social justice more broadly. This is vital, urgent
filmmaking, which should be required viewing in feminist and
LGBT classrooms."
Ann Pellegrini, Associate Professor
of Performance Studies and Religious Studies, New York University,
Co-author of Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits
of Religious Tolerance.
"This film is an excellent resource
for classroom use! CRUEL AND UNUSUAL’s
smart, compelling and complex treatment of the issues associated
with transgender women in prison totally captivated my students.
It is a great resource for discussing theories of sex and
gender, the criminal justice system, the treatment of prisoners,
and human rights in the United States. The filmmakers successfully
show the humanity of their subjects while simulateously providing
a sophisticated analysis of how prison policies address the
issues sex and gender. This film is compelling, entertaining,
provocative, accessible and thoughtful. I highly recommend
it."
Debra Liebowitz, Associate Professor,
Political Science & Women's Studies, Drew University
"CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
is, itself, unusual in its ability to honestly and sensitively
explore the lives of these transgender women, and the larger
issues that surround them. The documentary – and the
women’s stories -- is engaging and compelling to watch.
At the same time that the filmmakers successfully show the
women’s humanity, they also interrogate how sex and
gender take form in the setting of a prison system. This will
be an excellent resource for educational purposes –
it is engaging and entertaining, provocative and compelling,
but it also presents hard and complicated issues of fixed
and mutable ideas about sex, gender and human rights in a
clear and accessible way."
Susana T. Fried, Ph.D., Consultant
on gender, sexuality and human rights
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Cruel
and Unusual